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Windows 7 64 and zone alarm internet sec.

Just purchased the latest version of za internet security. Everything works fine until the machine has been rebooted a few times. THEN when i go to either restart or shut down the machine will hang on the "shutting down" screen.... for ever. I have checked i dont have any other anti virus prorgrams running, windows defender is turned off. i did notice that the control panel shows the windows firewall is off, yet under services it says the actual service itself is on. any ideas on the freezing it doesnt happen immediatly after install it takes a few reboots. however once it starts happening it doesnt stop, i then get a freeze everytime windows is shut down.

Re: Windows 7 64 and zone alarm internet sec.

Not entirely sure ZA is the cause here but here is what you should do to solve the problem...

My guess is that since the first time it didn't shut down correctly it has not shutdown correctly since...am I right? I have noticed that if you go through one bad shutdown the problem will persist on every shutdown after that.
To correct the problem:

Start windows in safe mode....Once it has booted into safe mode, restart.
Let it boot normally and completly and then for good measure reboot once again. It should have cleared the shutdown issue (bad write of the swap file) and you should shutdown normally from then on (or at least until something else mucks up the writing of the swap file.

Re: Windows 7 64 and zone alarm internet sec.

Nope, as soon as i uninstall ZA the machine has no problems shutting down. its only while za is on the machine is when it acts up. also this is a fresh install of 7 64bit HP with all updates done. i just tried manually shutting down the windows firewall service so im hoping that will help, then again i still have a few more reboots before it normally would start to act up ( normal is 3 reboots after za install)

It is Sometimes very Difficult toDiagnose and fix a Computerfrom halfway across the Country, without All the Details,without the ability to sit in front of your Computer monitor and see what's going on..

B.) It looks like your Upgrade Install may Have been Corrupted durring Download or install proccess.The Best Fix for this problem is to Uninstall the Corrupte Version.. and download a fresh copy of Za 9.1 and do a Clean re-install.

Originally, I enabled the Norton software, then added ZoneAlarm Pro 9.1.008.000. The computer started locking up within, say, 2-5 minutes of booting. I don't think it started locking up after the first few reboots--sorry, trying to remember to the best of my ability--but it was on the same day as the very first boot. My first thought was that the problem was Norton related. I had only installed slickrun and Firefox 3.6 with a few good and trusty plug-ins like NoScript, etc. I noticed some other intermittent graphics related problems as well; incomplete pictures (cubist is my best description) when displaying some of my own JPG images in browsers and also from the web within IE-64, IE-32, and Firefox. This picture problem may be a red herring but I'll include it anyway.

I got fed up using System Restore to try to figure out where the problem came from and then finally did a complete restore from the factory image on day 2.

This time I decided to be even more careful about what I did next:
1. Uninstalled some HP Assistant Bloatware.
2. Uninstalled Norton.
3. Installed ZoneAlarm Pro 9.1.008.000 (Same version I'm running on my old Dell 8100 w/WinXP and w/McAfee with no problems).
4. Installed Microsoft Security Essentials (decided to try this because Comcast just switched from McAfee to Norton and McAfee is no longer available for free for Comcast customers)
5. So far so good.
6. Installed Firefox 3.6, slickrun, Trillian Pro 4.1, and Canon Printer software.
7. So far so good.
8. Installed Office 2007 and Quicken 2010.
9. Doing great still. No problems.
10. Went to bed.
11. Next morning, noticed about 20-30 queued updates from Microsoft, mostly for Office. Told the system to apply all of them before shutting down, then left for work.
12. Came home, started up the machine, got the hanging again after 2-5 minutes.
13. Thought, oh great, last change were Office updates, that's got to be the problem.
14. Found I could boot into Safe Mode w/Networking and not experience the problem.
15. Couldn't figure out how to uninstall Office updates in Safe Mode, so I started a different approach which was to systematically start disabling various programs in the OS bootup configuration (and rebooting after each change into non-safe mode to try it out). Was able to disable some other HP non-essential services and then everything in my boot list, including MS Security Essentials, but not ZoneAlarm--it wouldn't let me disable it.
16. Still got the problem each time; consistently. The Event log, and staring at Process Monitor to see what was running whenver the system hung wasn't helping either.
17. Enabled all the **** that I had disabled.
17. Uninstalled ZoneAlarm in Safe Mode which automatically rebooted and finished uninstalling in regular mode. (I was afraid if the problem wasn't ZA, that uninstalling in non-safe mode might not complete)
18. All is well again.
19. Turned ON the Windows Firewall which was off--the service was running all along, but the firewall was not turned on until now.
20. The machine hasn't locked up since I rebooted, including the 30 or so minutes I've spent browsing these forums and writing this reply.
21. Waited another day to post this reply just to see if it came back. It didn't.

I've come to the conclusion that ZoneAlarm is at least part of the lock-up problem. But clearly, it worked fine w/Security Essentials for several hours it seems.

I'd love to hear some suggestions, because I've liked ZA over the years and would like to continue using it on Windows 7. One thing I think I might try, when I have more time, is to install ZoneAlarm and not pick silent mode--make ZoneAlarm ask me permission on everything. Perhaps ZoneAlerm in silent mode (I forget what it's called) looks at some critical windows function as being bad and hangs the whole OS.

Re: Windows 7 64 and zone alarm internet sec.

Originally Posted by reaganomics

I've come to the conclusion that ZoneAlarm is at least part of the lock-up problem. But clearly, it worked fine w/Security Essentials for several hours it seems.Thanks.

There is a known conlficts with MS Security Essential that will be addressed with the next update. No ETA. There have been beta versions of some ZA products that already addressed this issue (www.zonealarm.com/beta)

It is usually good norm to open your own thread, describing your problem in detail rather than hijacking other OP threats especially if the issue posted has no link with OP original post. Also note that MS SE conflict has already been reported in this board. There is a search function on the top forum banner that can help on this.

Re: Windows 7 64 and zone alarm internet sec.

I am having the same problems. I have Zone Extreme and Windows 7 64-bit will lag on shutting down or rebooting. I have to do a cold shutdown. It was not doing it before but as soon as I installed Zone Alarm, this issue surfaced. I have MS Essentials installed as well. Can we get an update on the patch or is it recommended to uninstall MS Essentials or ZA? Which one? Please give us a feedback through this forum.